Essay writing is a significant element for expressing oneself and an important indicator of linguistic competency and knowledge of an author. In particular, essays are considered by many researchers as the most useful tool to assess learning outcomes, implying the ability to recall, organize and integrate ideas, the ability to express oneself in writing and the ability to supply merely than identify interpretation and application of data. Essay writing has been an important subject in the educational system across cultures and throughout history.
Essays are often evaluated to determine a student's writing skills, identify areas for improvement, and measure progress over time. A teacher or other reviewer reads and grades the text, and then provides feedback to the student as needed. The essay may be graded on factors such as sentence structure, word usage, punctuation, grammar, cohesion, spelling, and organizational structure. The feedback typically includes generalized comments and an overall characterization of the essay, such as “your essay is well developed.”
Typical essay evaluations do not identify student attributes that can be used to improve future instruction, nor do they provide tips on how to better communicate with the student to improve their essay writing. Thus, improved systems and methods in essay evaluation are needed.